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Youth Development


Ruchillnomore
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Just read in the evening times that Airdrie United have secured £100,000 from Celtic for one of their youth players Tony Watt. I know that this has been discussed but it surely goes to highlight even more the importance of youth. Our club sadly has been ciminally negligent over the years and my reasoning for this is quite simply how come Airdrie Utd have managed to recognise this whenn the arse was hanging oot their trousers but when we are struggling youth is always the first to go.

 

And by all accounts the boy Watt is not the only gem that they have. My main hope is that no matter what direction the club move in the years ahead we dont make the same mistake again because who knows there might be a couple of gems waiting who whilst bringing something to the team in their early years might also bring valuable funding that allows the club to function.

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Totally agree! Developing our own young players, getting a good season or two out of them in the first team and then selling them with the money going back in to youth development has to be the way to go.

 

For older fans, is this not how it was done back in the "good old days"?

In the `good old days` there was such a thing as binding contracts. Now if the circumstances are favourable a club can simply take players from a youth system and pay the `selling` club a fee based on his earnings which in most cases is buttons. Arsenal as an example feed their own youth structure with players from other clubs youth systems. Their scouting system is almost entirely based on this approach.

 

Before we start saying this is the way to go to make money let`s find out why Celtic spent a six figure fee on a young player when if they had waited until the end of his contract (short term for young players as dictated by European Law) they could have taken him for very little. Is the guy exceptional? Is he old enough to have signed a long term contract with Airdrie? Were other clubs involved in a bidding war?

 

Current employement legislation relating to young people makes investment in youth systems a somewhat dodgy exercise if the aim is to make profit on that investment.

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